Tomorrow, Ireland takes over as EU Council Presidency for six months, when the EU is renegotiating tech and tax rules. In The Guardian this morning I argue it must recuse itself from these discussions because it is so captured by big tech. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I am very happy to announce that we have appointed Louise Hooper as Enforce's new AI expert. Louise was a barrister at top London set Garden Court Chambers for more than two decades, and has joined us full time. enforce.ie/staff/louise...

A year ago today I said it would not be necessary to contemplate child social media ban if we had faith in our regulators or tech. Strong tools exist but go unused: -AI Act Art 1(b) -GDPR Art 8 and 9 -AVMSD Art 28 (b)(1) -DSA (interim measures, crisis response mechanism) www.iccl.ie/digital-data...

The fantastic @caoilfhionn.bsky.social is interviewing former President of Ireland Mary McAleese on stage at ICCL’s 50th anniversary conference right now.

EU, tech law CJEU: Member States can require age verification for porn, and ban rebroadcast of traffic cop information also ***a website that controls what viewers see via an algorithm is liable for the content*** curia.europa.eu/site/upload/...

3 day preliminary hearing in ICCL class action v Microsoft tomorrow. In Ireland’s first ever class action, this hearing asks: who bears the burden of proof when big tech uses your data in bizarre & hidden ways? Is it you or they who is required to be transparent about it? enforce.ie/digital-data...

3 day preliminary hearing in ICCL class action v Microsoft starts tomorrow. In Ireland’s first ever class action, this hearing asks: who bears the burden of proof when big tech uses your data in bizarre & hidden ways? Is it you or they who is required to be transparent about it? @iccl.bsky.social

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I’m making a text adventure game. You wake up on a bench in 2026. You are Paul Baran. Your last memory is 1970. The game is called “A little caution”.

Bravo UK CMA arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...

I told Reuters last week that Meta's new employee-surveillance-to-train-AI-to-replace-employees (apparently called the "Model Capability Initiative") is a sign of what is to come every worker, everywhere. We want to hear from Meta employees. www.reuters.com/business/met...

We are delighted to announce the appointment of @johnnyryan.bsky.social to Adjunct Full Professor at the UCD Centre for Digital Policy! Johnny is a globally recognised expert and scholar whose work and litigation has influenced digital law and policy in Europe and the United States.

Today I ‘interviewed’ Facebook whistleblower on stage at Hay…& she couldn’t say a word. Facebook took legal action to prevent her speaking. What pathetic, pointless vindictiveness. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

"U.S. forces deployed to war zones have ​been targeted using commercially available location data" Just like I, @johnnyryan.bsky.social and others warned. US Senator Wyden says it's time to "start treating the adtech industry as a national security threat". Agreed. www.reuters.com/business/med...

Reminder: Adtech is dangerous. New story, same problem. www.reuters.com/business/med... 9 years since I blew the whistle. 8 years since formal complaint to Irish DPC (which supervises Google and others across all of Europe). Senator Wyden's letter today --> www.documentcloud.org/documents/28...

I spoke to @alejandrotauber.bsky.social of @euobserver.com about how Europe's "Ireland problem" could lead to tech disaster for our children, industry, and politics euobserver.com/218368/dubli...

@jensbest.bsky.social james?

AI race: US leads. How far behind are China and Europe? Our plot of 2 years of AI Epoch Capability Index scores (a composite of LLM test scores) Note: EU firms acquired by US firms counted as US. Data source @epochai.bsky.social epoch.ai/data/benchma... (20 May 2026)

We have released several updates to Verity, our tool to minimise AI hallucinations. v0.3.0 --> www.iccl.ie/digital-data... Free for researchers, campaigners, legislators, litigators, reporters to use, adapt, and improve.

Video of my re:publica26 Berlin keynote Europe can't trust Ireland on digital (Ireland can't trust itself!) Europe's children & democracy & innovators & security are under attack To avoid tech dystopia, EU must confront its "Ireland problem" www.youtube.com/watch?v=cneL... #rp26 @re-publica.com

We have released updates to Verity Better model mix, logprob transparency largely fixed, and better documentation to help people adapt it to their self-hosted or cloud AI. www.iccl.ie/digital-data...

"In the entire period of the GDPR we have had no almost no decisions that make a substantial change to how these companies use data. There's been no impact. The GDPR may as well not have been written" @johnnyryan.bsky.social on Ireland's bigtech GDPR non-enforcement: www.youtube.com/watch?v=cneL...

L'Irlande a zéro indépendance vis à vis des big tech et elle sera à la présidence de l'UE à partir du 1er juillet. Ça pose un problème mais ça pourrait aussi être un levier, comme l'expliquait J. Ryan hier à @re-publica.com. Il rêve même de l'éjection de Trump qui est dépendant des big tech #RP26

My keynote at re:publica 2026: Digital dystopia and Europe's Ireland problem #rp26 @re-publica.com www.youtube.com/watch?v=cneL...

This is not an advertisement The participating tech companies push self-loathing and suicide into children’s feeds, the sponsoring law firm works for TikTok and Meta, and the expert is the person who sued all other EU enforcers to not act against Meta. legal-news.mhc.ie/14/1251/may-...

The great @carolecadwalla.bsky.social on stage at re: publica right now

I’m on stage at Re: Publica in Berlin (virtually) right now, and speaking (in person) on stage tomorrow Thanks Kristin Siebert for the photo.

A nice piece on Verity, our newly released tool to minimise false LLM claims for locally hosted AI. Thanks gor spreading the word @theregister.com. Verity is free to use and adapt. www.theregister.com/ai-ml/2026/0...

Dubliners, what is going on here?

We are releasing Verity a tool to minimise false LLM claims and sources. It can run on cheap, old hardware. Verity's code is now published for anyone to use, test, adapt, and improve. You can use it and build upon it for free. www.iccl.ie/digital-data...

This is very welcome news today that the Oireachtas Media Committee has recommended that recommender algorithms be disabled for children and turned off by default for adults. ICCL has long highlighted the dangers of algorithms and campaigned for them to be switched off.

We are releasing Verity a tool to minimise false LLM claims and sources. It can run on cheap, old hardware. Verity's code is now published for anyone to use, test, adapt, and improve. You can use it and build upon it for free. www.iccl.ie/digital-data...

Wie wurde Europa so anfällig für den Einfluss von Big Tech-Konzernen? Der Leiter von Enforce & Adtech-Kritiker Johnny Ryan (@johnnyryan.bsky.social) diskutiert auf der #rp26 die damit verbunden Gefahren und skizziert mögliche Lösungen. ➡️ re-publica.com/en/news/rp26...

I'm speaking Re:Publica in Berlin next week How do we avoid dystopia? Session details --> re-publica.com/de/session/h...

It is good to see CnaM do something. However, this fight over what the off switch for dangerous algorithms looks like on Meta is crazy - the GDPR prohibits these algorithms from being on in the first place.

German (ARD) documentary on digital scams and the data that powers them was watched by 3.71 million viewers last night! See Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung piece www.faz.net/aktuell/feui... Watch on ARD --> www.ardmediathek.de/video/hirsch...

Later today, at the Oireachtas (Irish Parliament) EU Affairs Committee, I will call for Ireland to recuse itself from all digital issues during its EU Council Presidency. Ireland’s regulatory sabotage of EU data law has exposed Europe’s children to serious mental harm. www.iccl.ie/press-releas...

A thought: will the Vatican City be the first state in Europe to free itself from U.S. tech dependence?

🔎📱 Just before Hungary’s election, we revealed Viktor Orbán’s intelligence agencies secretly use Webloc – an Israeli mass surveillance tool tracking hundreds of millions via smartphone ad data – making Hungary the first confirmed EU user, likely violating GDPR. @vsquare.bsky.social @citizenlab.ca

Important reporting from NYT AI overviews above search results are wrong about 10% of the time, but the scale of this is so vast that it really matters. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/07/t...

Lili might be right www.nytimes.com/2026/04/07/w...

The reality is those countries that switched to renewables are now much more insulated from the crisis than those that didn't. Yet there will be many conservatives in Europe that will fall for this BS from the US State Department. Sad.

Kudos to @micheal-martin.bsky.social for this clear and direct criticism

Job opportunity We are hiring an AI expert to join ICCL Enforce www.iccl.ie/digital-data...

Job opportunity We are hiring an AI expert to join ICCL Enforce www.iccl.ie/digital-data...

Ireland is blocking ICCL from taking the cases it needs to take to protect vulnerable children against dangerous and addictive social media companies. www.irishtimes.com/technology/2...

Response from the President of the @ec.europa.eu It would have been good if the President had provided links or citation to the evidence. www.iccl.ie/wp-content/u...

My testimony at the Oireachtas (Irish Parliament) Justice Committee yesterday evening: new documents reveal serious problems in the recruitment process for Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner.

This afternoon I will speak at the Oireachtas Justice Committee. I will share new information obtained by ICCL about the latest Data Protection Commissioner recruitment process, in which a former Meta spokesperson was appointed Ireland's new Data Protection Commissioner. www.iccl.ie/press-releas...

Good interview by @hlinehan.bsky.social with Eoin Drea. podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/i...